Daily Bridge Club

Frank Stewart

Saturday

Sep 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Iíve heard it said that if you took a photo of the spectrum across which a top expertís thoughts range during the play, a casual player would find it quite remarkable. Experts often trade on slender inferences.

Todayís West led the ace and a second club against Southís game, and East took the queen and led the king, forcing dummy to ruff. West threw a diamond.

South drew trumps and led a diamond to dummyís king and Eastís ace.

He won the diamond return and cashed another diamond, and East pitched a club. South then had to judge the heart position.

South knew East had held K-Q-7-5-4-3 in clubs, A-5 in diamonds and two trumps, hence three hearts. Some Easts would have overcalled two clubs with no other high cards, but many more would have acted with the queen of hearts as well.

So South declined the normal heart finesse: He led the jack for a backward finesse. When Westís queen covered, South took the ace and returned a heart to his eight to make his game.

Answer: Partnerís 2NT is an effort to reach game and asks for your opinion. You would jump to four hearts with A 6 4 2, A 7 3, 10 9 7 6 4, 6 or raise to 3NT with 10 6 2, Q 7 3, K 10 9 7, K 7 6. With your actual hand, either a pass or a return to three hearts might be a winning action, but since your values are minimum, you must stay below game.

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